As a child growing up in rural East Texas, I spent many evenings gazing up at the heavens, loving the beautiful stars unspoiled by city light pollution. My parents would always say, ‘Make a wish on a star and it will come true,’ especially if you were lucky enough to see a shooting star, like the one I captured in the painting in the headlining of this newsletter.
To bring this even closer to home was my love of the Disney movie Pinocchio – the story of a puppet who wished on a star to be a real boy while the adorable Jiminy Cricket crooned the song “When You Wish Upon a Star.” This whimsical tune and its inspiring lyrics, originally composed in 1938, became Disney’s theme song.
This song may have been the beginning of me dreaming big dreams, and as many came true, my belief in this magic grew. Some of my childhood dreams were quite simple, but others were almost as fantastic and impossible as the puppet who wished to be a boy.
Here are the first two verses of the song that certainly had an impact on me:
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Perhaps what stands out is that it doesn’t matter who you are, how many resources you have or how much influence you may hold. What does matter is that your heart is truly in the dream. I came to realize that if my heart was in a dream, I would not give up and keep pursuing it, even against all odds.
As this summer draws nearer its end, perhaps you will spend some time in awe of the ancient stars and just maybe, when you wish upon one of them, your dream will come true.
Still wishing on stars,
Gay Gaddis
Founder. Author. Artist. Trailblazer.
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